Textile Inspired Lithium–Oxygen Battery Cathode with Decoupled Oxygen and Electrolyte Pathways

Abstract The lithium–air (Li–O₂) battery has been deemed one of the most promising next‐generation energy‐storage devices due to its ultrahigh energy density. However, in conventional porous carbon–air cathodes, the oxygen gas and electrolyte often compete for transport pathways, which limit battery performance. Here, a novel textile‐based air cathode is developed with a triple‐phase structure to improve overall battery performance. The hierarchical structure of the conductive textile network leads to decoupled pathways for oxygen gas and electrolyte: oxygen flows through the woven mesh while the electrolyte diffuses along the textile fibers. Due to noncompetitive transport, the textile‐based Li–O₂ cathode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 8.6 mAh cm⁻², a low overpotential of 1.15 V, and stable operation exceeding 50 cycles. The textile‐based structure can be applied to a range of applications (fuel cells, water splitting, and redox flow batteries) that involve multiple phase reactions. The reported decoupled transport pathway design also spurs potential toward flexible/wearable Li–O₂ batteries.